Chapter 5:

What Now?

The Female Leads Have Eyes For Only Me

We went back to the Guild Tavern to abandon the quest.

We got a penalty, as Ophelia mentioned earlier. Since we didn’t attempt the quest whatsoever, our reputation for local requests went down, so it’d be hard to take on another quest that someone went through the guild to post.

It sucked, but that was only for local quests made by farmers or businessmen from different parts of the city. We could still take on guild and government quests if we wanted—though they did pay less.

Exiting the tavern for what seemed like the bajillionth time today, Augustina sighed with comfort and satisfaction.

“I’m glad that’s over with,” she said.

“I’m with you there. And it was pretty easy if I’m being honest,” I said as we walked down the street from the tavern, passing by businesses and buildings made mostly of stone.

“Mhm,” Ophelia nodded.

All we needed to do was swallow our pride and admit we couldn't take on the quest to the receptionist.

All in all, we were happy. Well, except for Mia, who was slogging behind us with her head low and her shoulders drooping.

Augustina turned to her.

“What’s wrong, Mia?”

The girl groaned in response.

“I’m gonna miss all that money we turned dooooooown,” she gloated.

“D-don’t be so sad about it, Mia. I’m sure we can make a lot more money down the line,” Ophelia said.

“Ophelia’s right,” I said, joining in. “Once we have some sort of game plan going into fights and such, we’ll be leveling up and making bank! So cheer up.”

Mia pursed her lips, glossing her eyes over mine.

“If you say so~” she said, catching up to us.

Hearing that and seeing her cute little smile as she strolled up to us caused a little butterfly to wreak havoc on my poor belly.

It brought me back to just moments before when she called me cute…

Oh, come on, Tai. Don’t bring ‌any of these weird romantic feelings into this.

What she said earlier was just a compliment. That’s all it was! So what if it was a bit flirtatious? That’s just how Mia is. She’s supposed to be the outgoing gal from the novel after all. You’re just making things weird because you don’t get complimented often!

Plus, she said it herself that she wasn’t some simple girl that anyone could snag.

She made those boundaries clear. I need to respect that.

“Yahoo? Tai? Are you there?”

Mai was waving her hand in front of my face while August and Ophelia stood by with concerned looks on their faces.

I snapped back to the present.

I didn’t realize that I had stopped walking during my whole monologue spiel.

“Sorry,” I said, raising my hand as an apologetic gesture. “I spaced out for a moment there.”

Mia laughed.

“We could tell~,” she said.

“Ouch.” That stung.

Mia playfully pressed her elbow against me.

“Oh, come on, Tai. You’re not gonna jab back at me~?”

“Not thanks. I’m not good at that kind of stuff.”

“Boo—! You’re no fun to mess with!”

“Well, sor-ry for being that way,” I said back.

Augustina chuckled, and the next thing you know, we all were.

See, this is how it should be. Walking around town and cracking jokes. Things that friends would normally do. There’s no need to ruin this newfound friendship with something dumb like romance.

Especially since I just met Mia and the others today! I mean, think about it!

Guy ruins friendship because he caught feelings for a girl he met an hour ago! That’s ludicrous! That’s not how I want to portray myself!

This is how it should be! Just being friends!

So, with that out of the way, I could finally walk alongside Mia and the others with a clearer conscience.

“So what now?” Ophelia asked.

“Good question,” Mia answered.

It was still pretty early in the afternoon.

“I suppose we can start with what we talked about earlier and come up with strategies on how we’re gonna defend ourselves,” Augustina suggested.

I raised my hand to interject.

“That’s a fabulous idea, but before we do that, is it okay if you guys can show me around Isle City? I just got here today, so I don’t know where anything is.”

Mia’s eyes lit up.

“Really?!” she asked.

“Mm,” I nodded.

“Where were you originally coming from?” Augustina asked.

“California.”

“Cali—what now?” Mia asked.

“It’s a state in the U.S.”

I was telling them the truth, but all three of them were looking at me the way concerned mothers do when they realize that their growing child still plays with imaginary friends.

“Right…” Mia went on to say.

“You guys don’t believe me, do you?”

Augustina and Mia had their lips shut, while Ophelia raised her hand while hiding behind her staff—which covered up nothing by the way.

“I believe you…” she said.

You don’t look like you believe me though…

“Oh well, it doesn’t matter,” Mia said before locking arms with me.

“Huah?!”

She caught me off guard.

“Ladies,” Mia said, smiling at her two friends. “Let’s show Tai the best places in Isle!”

“Mm!” Ophelia nodded.

“Understood,” Augustina smirked, her arms crossed.

***

They showed me the important places like the stores, blacksmith, inns, and the market square, where this old woman was selling these fine pieces of jewelry.

“Would you be interested in buying these earrings?” she asked me. “It’ll be the perfect gift for your special lady, and it’s made of pure odanite—an ore that’s getting more scarce as the days go by!”

Standing in front of her market stall, there was a crowd forming around the place as people yelled and advertised their stalls from the background.

I stared at the orange earrings the elderly woman laid on a nice purple pillow. Mia, Ophelia, and I looked over in awe, while August stood away from the crowd.

“Hm? They look nice,” I told the lady. “How much are they?”

“25,000 gold per earring.”

“…”

Me and the girls simply stared at the old lady. I mean, 50,000 gold for orange earrings? You aren’t fooling me with that price. That’s an obvious scam if I’ve ever seen one.

“Sorry, but no thanks.”

With those words, we walked away from the lady's jewelry stand.

But as we did, people kept on crowding the stand, shoving bags of gold in front of the poor old lady.

“Only 50,000?! That’s a steal! Let me buy them from you!” one man screamed.

“Don’t listen to that man, miss! He’s just trying to play you for a fool!” one woman screamed, shoving her way to the front before placing a gigantic bag of gold onto the wooden counter. “I’ll pay you 60,000 for those earrings!”

“I’ll pay you 65,000!”

“I’ll pay you 80,000!”

“Oh, 80,000, eh?” the old lady said, grinning as she stroked the bottom of her chin with her long nails. “That sounds nice.”

The bidding kept going, but me and the others walked out of earshot before the lady took an offer.

“Paying 80,000 gold for earrings? That’s pretty insane,” I told the girls.

“It would be for any normal pair of earrings,” August nodded, “but for something made of odanite, the price is reasonable.”

“Are you serious?”

“Mhm~!” Mia interjected as she looked over at what each stand offered. “The lady was telling the truth. Odanite is becoming rare now since kingdoms continue to harvest it for jewels and decorations.”

“So you’re saying that this world is gonna run out of odanite at some point?”

Ophelia nodded.

“It’s said that all the odanite on Rosala (the kingdom we're in right now) will be harvested by the end of next year.”

“Wow, that’s kind of sad.”

“It is,” August said, “but there’s not much we can do about it.”

“Yeah, I guess…”

***

We passed by other stands where owners flaunted over ‌how rare their merchandise was.

Some people boasted that the meat they brought to their stands came from animals that were going extinct, while others urged folks to buy jewelry made from minerals that they swore would be fully harvested and never sold again for this cheap ‌a price.

I walked by ‌every stand, not wanting to fall into their sales talk, but their words bothered me.

It was sad, to say the least.

Would people on Earth act like this if the circumstances were similar?

If an animal were going extinct, would people form a line to have a taste of it before it turned into nothing but a history note?

I scratched the back of my head with awkward tension, then sighed.

I already knew the answer.

It was yes.

People were cruel after all.

Though I try not to think about it too much.

“Should we head out now?” Augustina asked the group. “I think we’ve shown Tai around all the important places in Isle City.”

“Mm, we should leave. Being in such a crowded area is too much for me…”

“You said it, Ophelia,” Mia said. “We also don’t have market square money to spend either.”